The Effect of Political Public Opinion Research on Voter Preferences: The Case of Karaman

Public opinion polls are one of the indispensable practices of the election campaign processes of political parties and political candidates during political election periods in democratic countries. Political opinion polls fulfill the function of a communication and interaction tool between political will and society. It has functions such as providing the flow of political information from the voters to the political parties, providing information about the attitudes of the target audience, shaping the policies to be implemented by the political structure according to the data obtained from the voters, showing the change of opinion in the election calendars, giving importance to the public opinion and giving place to minority views. The concept of public opinion surveys is discussed, the definition of this factor, its importance, change and its effect on voter behaviors are mentioned. An online survey was conducted to determine the viewpoints of the study on public opinion surveys and whether they were affected by these researches and their level of participation in politics. Some of the findings obtained; They state that they follow the results of the political opinion polls made during the election periods, that they do not affect their political decisions, that there is no certainty about the trust in the opinion polls, that the voters have a partial effect in directing their political preferences, and that the results of the political opinion polls will never give up on the loyalty of the voters to the party to which they belong.